Saturday, November 27, 2004

I'm Thankful I Didn't Have to Bake a Turkey

Our Thanksgiving was small, but nice this year. Randy and I went to Mom & Dad's and it was just the four of us there for Thanksgiving dinner.

Mom baked a couple of baking hens in her rotisseries (yes, she has two of them, and the hens were just large enough not to fit in the big rotisserrie at the same time). When she took them out they were golden brown on the outside and moist and delicious on the inside. She also had mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, coleslaw, and an interesting pumpkin dish. She said she'd just thrown the pumpkin dish together because she had all the stuff to make it. *LOL* It was pureed pumpkin mixed with brown sugar, spices and nuts, topped with crushed gingersnaps and baked. It was very rich and very good.

I took my infamous broccoli and cheese casserole (which everyone either really loves or really hates, depending on their fondness for broccoli), some stuffing with dried cranberries (yummy!), some deviled eggs (Randy's special request), and a sweet potato pie (purchased at Wal-Mart; I never HAVE been able to make a pie crust you could cut with a chain saw).

The food was all great, and we had the dishes washed and put away by 1:00 p.m. I told Mom that we were finished and ready to hit the couch by the time a lot of people were just sitting down to dinner!

It was cold and spitting snow most of the day, so it was lovely to be piled up in their living room, full of Thanksgiving dinner and warm and cozy.

It was Randy's turn to stay with his Mom Thursday night, so we took both cars to Mom and Dad's and Randy left from there late Thursday afternoon. It was a lovely, relaxed day, and I was very grateful I hadn't had to bake a turkey. :-)

Yesterday I dragged the Christmas decorations out of the closet and decked the halls. Meghan was NOT amused; she doesn't like ANYthing changed, THANK you VERY much. She followed me around, sniffing things as I took them from boxes, then looking up at me with those big brown eyes with her expression that says, "Oh, PLEASE, Mom. You're not going to hang THAT thing up again this year, are you?"

Today (Saturday) I have a thrilling day planned. Laundry. Housework. Cooking. Randy wanted me to cook a ham today, and I agreed. I'm making this blog entry while waiting for it to get late enough so that I won't disturb my downstairs neighbor too early on a Saturday morning. (Thoughtful little cuss, aren't I?)

I love early Saturday mornings. I wake up early, even if I TRY to sleep in. If I'm planning to stay home on Saturday I never set an alarm clock, but I wake up at my usual 6:00 a.m. just the same. I don't mind, though; it gives me a chance to have some undisturbed computer time. :-)

Friday, November 12, 2004

Can You Be Allergic to Work?

I have a headache. I've had a headache since 12:32 Tuesday. How do I know exactly when it started? There was a big ol' rumble in my office at exactly that time Tuesday when the new heating system kicked on for the first time since it had been installed. I heard the roar, had just enough time to think, "That smells like mold or mildew or something", and my head blocked up solid. I don't know WHAT that thing blew out into my office, but I'm allergic to whatever it is.

The HVAC guy, of course, couldn't smell anything and thinks it was just a coincidence. *yeah....right* Our maintenance supervisor told me it's hard to tell what could have been in the ductwork. I agree. And frankly don't want to think much about it.

My headache was so bad yesterday that I stayed home. Today's a little better. I guess all the "critters" will eventually be blown out of the ducts and I can quit suffering. This is just nuts.

We're going to North Carolina tomorrow; Randy's ex-mother-in-law is home from the hospital (she had colon surgery last week), and we want to go see her. Everyone says she's doing really well, and I'm glad to hear it.

We have rain today......makes me soooooooooooo sleepy! Tomorrow's supposed to be nice, though.

I've been doing some of my Christmas shopping and have intentions of being finished by Thanksgiving. Rainy cool days like today make me want to Christmas shop. I haven't a clue what to get Randy this year. He WANTS a utility trailer, but he's not getting that. *LOL*

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Presidential Ponderings

Remember the good ol' days when, even in a close race, you knew who the new president was going to be by breakfast-time on the day after the election? Not any more. MSNBC's headline right now reads: "Bush's chief of staff declares victory, but Kerry not conceding." Seems Ohio is going to be to the 2004 election what Florida was to the 2000 election. *SIGH*

Did I vote? You betcha. I've voted in every presidential election since I turned 18. I figure that if I don't vote, I have no right to complain, and I want my right to COMPLAIN! *LOL*

Lots going on here. Randy's ex-mother-in-law, Wilma, is in the hospital. She's a dear lady and I just think the world of her. They had to take her to the emergency room last Friday; she was spitting up blood. After a series of tests, they determined that she has some leaky heart valves, but that wasn't the cause of some rapid drops in her blood pressure. They finally found that she had colon cancer. She had surgery yesterday; we've not talked to Theresa yet (Randy's ex-wife, who has become one of my friends as well), but when Randy talked to his daughter last night she said that Wilma's heart rate has been too fast. Otherwise, as far as she knew, surgery went okay.

My assistant here at work has had a run of bad luck, too. Monday, her husband hit a deer while he was driving her older-model Buick. $1,000 damages according to the trooper who worked the accident. Then Monday evening, just after she got home from work, her husband had an accident while working on a Bobcat at their home. Apparently, a hydraulic leak caused the Bobcat to come down on him, pinning him. MedFlight took him to the local hospital; they ran some tests and sent him home, finding no serious injury. She wasn't able to come to work yesterday; I've not heard from her yet this morning, and she's usually been here an hour by now. I hope nothing's gone wrong with her husband.